Hockey, Seriously?
by Amledo
Summary: A non-hero AU about how the Avengers came together as a group of friends. Includes college, and Organic Chem test gone wrong, some drunken behavior, something called the Avengers Incident, Nick Fury being furious and a trip to an LA Kings hockey game. Does contan slight slash, but really you can ignore it.


(A/N: Why oh why am I back? I really should be working on other things, and I swear to you, if you are a fan of anything else that I'm doing, that yes, I will get back to it soon. I hope. I don't own the Avengers and I never will; let's not have this go 'round again okay? So this is going to be my first go at a non-hero AU fic for these guys, and it is totally based on a dream that I had. Another point that I would like to bring up, I do not own the LA Kings, though I do congratulate them on their first ever Stanley Cup victory. There is some slash in here, it is very minimal Tony/Bruce, Thor/Loki, and Phil/Steve, so if that bothers you, you know the way out. There's also Clint/Natasha. On with the show!)

Hockey, Seriously?

The eight of them had been friends since a very interesting and little mentioned weekend in their freshman year of college. Sure Lucas had been Thomas's foster brother for 12 or so years and Clint had been attempting the date Natasha since the 8th grade, but they hadn't all come together until that one weekend. It was a weekend known to the community college that they had attended as the Avengers Incident and Activities Director Fury had vowed that such a thing would never happen again. But the name had stuck. Their insane little pack of friends became the Avengers and each of them had a code name, and it was absolutely hilarious.

The catalyst for the Avengers Incident had been a statistical fluke, a mishap with the campus internet connection in the café, where they happened to be the only occupants. Tony Stark, a master of computer programming, and a little drunk, had declared that he was going to look at the results for the Organic Chem. test that they had all just taken. With almost no prodding he had found his way directly into the school's database.

Curious the rest of them had crowded around, Bruce Banner admiring Tony's hacking skills and grinning devilishly at the perfect score that he alone had obtained. The rest of them had failed miserably. They grew furious and it was Loki who started swearing up a storm about biased teachers, marking them down because some people didn't believe in the metric system. Soon the others joined him when they saw just what a toll the test had taken on their GPA's.

Still at the computer, and a good deal more drunk, Tony used his access to the system, not to change his grade, but to go to war. The message 'we couldn't defend our GPA's but you can bet your ass we'll avenge them' was sent throughout the integrated e-mail system and scrolled over the marquee signs that dotted campus. Then following the advice of his new friends, he began to target lesson plans and class schedules, eliminating them or switching them around. Steve, who loved the military but had been unable to join because of his…preferences, asked Tony to play reveille over the PA system, and it was done.

By the time they had finished with their task the entire campus was chaos. They hid the night in Clint's off campus apartment, laughing and drinking and generally being pleased with themselves. That night Phil Coulson finally had the courage to ask Steve on a date, Natasha deigned to kiss Clint, Thomas and Lucas passed out in Clint's bed and Tony got very familiar with Bruce's physique as they wrestled over the last of the schnapps.

It was the next day when they woke up with hangovers and some fear that they would be caught that they opted to come up with their codenames. Steve had little choice, his love of the military made him Captain America. Bruce, with his rage issues and ability to look freakishly bigger than he actually was became the Hulk. Phil, who wanted nothing less than to work for the FBI became the Agent. Natasha claimed the title of Black Widow, smiling mysteriously when they asked why. Clint, a veritable sniper with a rubber band gun was Hawkeye. Thomas, a burly blonde with an unmistakable Norwegian accent became Thor and dubbed his very much not-brother Loki because of his pranks. Tony had smirked and smacked his abs and proclaimed himself Iron Man.

By the end of the day they had been rounded up and threatened with expulsion. Nick Fury had put them all into a single room, crowding them in and attempting to use the proximity to one another to get them to admit their crimes. Instead they just piled into one another's lap, Natasha sitting a bit to provocatively on Clint, Phil seemed inordinately pleased to be in Steve's presence much less his lap. Thomas held onto Lucas like they'd been forced into small spaces together more than once and Tony was shamelessly draped over Bruce's long legs.

In the end they had admitted nothing and nothing had been proved except that they had been drinking off campus, for which they were fined. Tony had sent the information to his father and the next day his new friends found themselves free of all charges and sitting on scholarships. It took them until Junior year to get him to admit that Howard had paid their way because they were quite literally the first people that Tony had ever cared about or made friends with.

Now just three years after graduation, they were all quite happily sharing a mansion home in LA, pursuing careers that they loved and enjoying healthy relationships. They didn't bother to wonder about how lucky they were to have found friends that so easily became lovers. Steve and Phil were so cute together that it was almost sickening, both worked in law enforcement, Steve as a State Trooper and Phil as Highway Patrol. Clint and Natasha were private detectives and were due to be married in the Fall. Thomas and Lucas getting together had been odd at first until they explained that nearly every day of their childhood they had been reminded that they were not brothers, Thomas was working on a medical degree and Lucas was a historian. Bruce and Tony, who had gotten together most recently were both going to school for a higher degree, Bruce in physics and Tony in engineering. It was odd, but it worked.

"Thor!" Tony shouted, from the kitchen, his eyes not leaving the laptop screen. When he got no response he flipped open his cell phone and pulled up their group of numbers, he almost couldn't help but smirk as the message 'Avengers assemble' sent to seven other phones.

Within minutes the kitchen was full and they all found themselves in the familiar position of standing behind Tony while he played with a computer.

"What's this about," Natasha said, playing with some notes that she hadn't set down yet. Her red hair was pulled back in a braid but somehow she still had loose strands of hair all over her face.

"A night out. We haven't gone on a group date in a while. I ordered the tickets, I just wanted to get you guys together so that we could go and pick them up. We can watch them put the floor together if we go now," Tony said with a smile and the rest of the group stared at the screen.

"Hockey, seriously? You want me in a crowd of screaming hockey fans?" Bruce questioned and Tony rolled his eyes, planting a kiss on Bruce's knuckles.

"I got us box seats darling. Nothing but food and booze and comfy chairs," Tony informed, earning him a few claps on the shoulder and a hair-fluffing from Steve. Kings games were one of the few things that they used the theatre room for, but going to a real one was so much better than that.

"Do I have time to get my jersey?" Steve asked and Tony rolled his eyes before nodding. Everyone had a jersey.

Less than an hour later they were wandering around the Staples Center like they owned the place, which knowing Howard Stark, could be partially true. They watched as the floor was assembled and then sat through team practice, chatting about how strong the defense was and ogling the goal tender.

When it was closer to game time the crowd began to file in and the door behind them opened. Tony hadn't been able to hack the system to figure out who had the other box seat, and as he turned his head he was almost glad that he hadn't known. Seeing the look on Nick Fury's face was entirely worth having to share the game with him.

(A/N: Seriously, this is a dream that I had. But I thought, why the heck not. I haven't written an AU and I didn't think that I would ever get to. Funny thing is, I'm not really a Kings fan…I totally go for the Blackhawks. Anyway, I hope you liked it!)


End file.
